Edinburgh University Press announces Non-Muslim Contributions to Islamic Civilisation, a new series which explores the understudied yet immense contributions of non-Muslims to the richness of Islamic civilisation and the complex interplay between cultures.
Non-Muslim Contributions to Islamic Civilisation, published by Edinburgh University Press, with series editors Carole Hillenbrand and Myriam Wissa is a new book series which deviates from the traditional focus on interfaith relations, and vividly brings to life the long, complex and varied contributions of non-Muslims in Islamic history and culture from late antiquity to early modernity (500 and 1800 CE.).
The series focuses on the contributions of Jews, Christians (including Armenians, Copts, Ethiopians, Georgians, Mozarabs and Syriacs) Samaritans, Mandeans, Hermetics, Harranians, Zoroastrians and peripheral cultures such as the Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, Taoist, “Shamanist” and African traditions to the intellectual, ideological, legal, economic and technological development of Islamic civilisation.
The series embraces the wide range of approaches and scholarship, transforming our view of the driving forces behind the formation of Islamic civilisation and how the management of its development has run hand in hand with its political expansion. It will highlight the social and cultural interactions that this expansion produced, while the new interactions with India, China and Central Asia set them in a broader context.
It aims to promote a more holistic approach which provides a new analysis of non-Muslim contributions in order to transcend issues from various disciplinary perspectives: philosophy, methods of theological debate, science, medicine, astronomy, astrology, alchemy, literature, administration, notions of rule, law, techniques such as irrigation and agriculture among other topics. The series also considers the relationships between trade, religion and state practices and documents the work of people in the trading towns connecting the Middle East, the Mediterranean, India, inland Asia, South Asia and beyond. By doing so it offers insights into how this dynamic shaped the contours of the diverse Islamic space.
This series will include monographs, edited volumes, and advanced textbooks written in English from established and younger scholars alike, offering a balance of interests, vertically through the period from 500 to 1800 or horizontally across the Islamic Caliphate and beyond. Proposals are invited from authors with a completed Book Proposal Form. We welcome ambitious writing projects, niche titles and as well as important books requiring translation.